Execution of Emrys
by roseannacharlotte
Summary: Merlin is caught doing magic and Uther has him executed. At the execution a mysterious woman pronounces judgement upon Uther before disappearing. Now Arthur has a mission; he must find his destined allies without the help of Emrys. Begins between seasons one and two.
1. Execution of a Good Man

The day dawned bright and sunny, a complete contrast to the sombre mood found within the castle. For today, an execution was to take place. A young man had been caught using magic. A member of the royal household. The prince's own manservant.

The boy was popular amongst the castle staff and, despite his cheeky tongue, was well liked by the knights. The king's ward and her maid were both good friends with the boy and the prince considered his manservant to be his best friend. King Uther on the other hand had always considered the boy an idiot and was actually rather glad of an excuse to be rid of him.

The King had ordered his son and ward to stand on the balcony with him to watch the execution. Normally, the king didn't insist on their presence at executions but today was different. Both Morgana and Arthur had been confined to their rooms since the arrest as both had (rather foolishly) stated in front of Uther that they would release Merlin if he were arrested. Uther had proclaimed that they must be under an enchantment which would break once Merlin died. Believing Gwen to be under the same enchantment, Uther had her confined with Morgana.

Despite everyone's desire for the hour to never come, eventually it was time for the execution. The drums beat a solemn march as several guards led Merlin up to the platform and unwillingly bound the boy to the stake.

"This man, Merlin," the king sneered the boy's name, "has been found guilty of practising magic. There is only one punishment that can be given." Uther nodded to the guards who sadly lowered the torch and held it to the wood until it lit. The only sound to be heard in the courtyard was the crackling of the flames. No one moved, no one spoke, no one even breathed. Screams suddenly rent the air. Merlin's screams seemed to break the spell and sobbing could be heard from all sides.

Finally the screams stopped. Movement in the crowd caught the king's eye. A finely dressed young lady walked across the courtyard and came to stand before the platform looking up at the king.

"You are a fool King Uther and without that boy you just had executed, you will die before destiny had intended. Your name shall soon be forgotten, though your son's name shall endure as long as there are stars in the sky." The mysterious young woman turned and began to walk away. Uther was annoyed.

"Arrest her," he ordered the guards. But it was too late. She was gone. Uther stalked away in a huff.

Arthur, Morgana and Gwen slowly turned away from the scene and walked together down the corridor towards Arthur's chambers where they sat together in silence for a while.

"I can't believe Merlin's gone," Gwen commented eventually.

"I keep expecting him to barge through that door without knocking and start throwing insults at me," added the prince.

"That lady though; the way she spoke to Uther. It was weird – like she was sentencing him. I wonder who she was and why she came." The first lady of Camelot hadn't been able to stop thinking about the strange ending to the execution.

"She said that Arthur's name would endure as long as there were stars in the sky," added Gwen. "Do you really think that's possible?"

I think that's a lot of pressure to be under. I agree with Morgana about it being strange. There was something in the way she spoke that reminded me of how Merlin can be sometimes. You know, when he has those moments where he says something and you realise that he's only pretending to be an idiot. That actually he's very wise."

The prince, the lady and her maid drifted off into silence again. This time the silence was only broken by a knocking at the door. When Arthur called out enter, the door opened to admit Sir Leon. Out of all the knights in Camelot, Sir Leon was closest to the prince and knew how close the young man had been to his manservant.

"I didn't think you'd sent for food. You should eat." Leon had come laden with food enough for the four of them and a goblet of wine each. Placing the food on the table, Leon handed each of the room's occupants a goblet before raising his own.

"To Merlin, we'll never forget you."

"To Merlin," each of the others repeated.

""Father is wrong about magic. I know that now. I pledge, here and now, in front of you all that when I am king, magic shall be free once more. And I shall have a statue of Merlin made; it shall sit in the place where he died and serve as a reminder that never again shall sorcerers be executed simply for having magic."

"Well said Prince Arthur," the lady from the execution was sat on the prince's bed. "I came to tell you this. Once and Future King, without Emrys by your side the road to Albion will be a difficult one. You will need people you can trust by your side. You must seek those who are destined to be your greatest allies." With that the girl was gone. The four who remained looked at each other confusedly.

"Who's Emrys?" Gwen asked the question they were all wondering.

"Perhaps Gaius will know," suggested Morgana.

"yes, we should go see him anyhow. Make sure he's okay."

The four friends rose and exited Arthur's chambers. The solemn group made their way to the physician's chambers. Morgana knocked lightly before pushing the door open anyway. Gaius was sat on a bench staring bleakly at the wooden table in front of him. Two wet tracks glistened down the old man's cheeks.

"Gaius." Gwen spoke softly as she went over and took one of the physician's hands within her own. Gaius turned to look at the maid; though she got the feeling he didn't really see her.

"I told him to be careful," the physician croaked at last. "I told him not to get caught."

"He never did do as he was told." The break in Arthur's voice betrayed him; revealing how sad he truly was that Merlin had gone.

Morgana came to sit on the other side of Gaius and told him about the reappearance of the lady; this necessitated a telling of the ending of the execution since Gaius had declined attending the dismal event.

"Emrys is a figure from druidic prophecy. It is said that Emrys will be the greatest sorcerer to ever walk the Earth and that Emrys and the Once and Future King will unite Albion together. The Druid's believe that Merlin is – Was – Emrys."

"But if he was that powerful, why didn't he just escape before the execution?"

"Your father wouldn't have just let him escape. Merlin would have spent the rest of his life being hunted, by you, on your father's orders." It was Morgana who deduced Merlin's reason for letting the execution go ahead. The five returned to silence. Eventually each of the young people left for his or her own chambers.

The following morning found Prince Arthur, Sir Leon, Lady Morgana and Gwen in the physician's chambers again. The four young people had many more questions they wanted to ask Gaius. Arthur had remembered the strange way the mysterious lady had addressed him when she had appeared in his chambers the previous evening.

"Gaius, have you ever heard of the Once and Future King?" Arthur began the questioning. Gaius startled when Arthur spoke the title.

"Where did you hear that?" he asked in confusion.

"The lady who told us of Emrys addressed Arthur in that way," explained Lady Morgana.

"I see. Well, there are prophecies about a king and a warlock who will unite Albion and restore magic to the land. The warlock of these prophecies is Emrys who the druids believed Merlin to be. There are those who believe you, Arthur, to be the king the prophecies refer to as the Once and Future King." Arthur's jaw dropped open.

"There are prophecies about Arthur?" questioned Morgana in surprise.

"The druids believe so," replied Gaius. "I don't know all that much about the prophecies. If you want to learn more, you'll need to seek out the druids."

"Then that is what we'll do," declared Arthur. "Leon, I think you and I need a hunting trip to get us out of the castle."

"No," interrupted Morgana. "Gwen and I want to come too. Why don't the four of us go visit my father's grave?" After a little arguing back and forth, Arthur finally agreed to Morgana's plan and the lady hurried off to find the king.

An hour after Morgana left the physician's chambers the four set off into the woods to seek out the druids.


	2. Underneath Camelot

_An hour after Morgana left the physician's chambers the four set off into the woods to seek out the druids._The only direction they had to go on was Arthur's memory of freeing the young druid boy Mordred. Arthur had taken the boy to the Forest of Balor where they were met by several other druids. So the Forest of Balor was their current destination.

The four spent their day combing through the woods but ended up returning to the castle that night disappointed. The druids were nowhere to be found.

As she lay in bed that night, trying not to fall asleep, Morgana heard a mysterious voice calling her name. At first the lady ignored it, but the voice was persistent. It also seemed to be inside her mind. So Morgana got up and followed the direction the voice seemed to be coming from. Eventually she reached a tunnel guarded by two men playing dice. As Morgana wondered how she would get past the men, the dice suddenly flew off the table and disappeared down another corridor. The men got up and chased after their dice. Morgana had no idea that her eyes had turned momentarily to gold.

Pondering her good luck, Morgana slipped down the tunnel and found herself stood on a small ledge overlooking a large cavern. Across from where Morgana stood, a large golden dragon rested on a rock. The dragon inclined its head in greeting when it saw her.

"Lady Morgana," it spoke in a voice that matched the one she had heard before.

"You have me at a disadvantage, Sir Dragon, you know my name, but I do not know yours," commented Morgana, attempting to be polite in the face of her astonishment. _Who knew dragons could talk?_

The dragon let out a rumbling laugh.

"My name is Kilgarrah, though I am often known as the Great Dragon, or at least I was before Uther chained me up down here. That is the first time I've ever been referred to as Sir Dragon however." As he spoke the Dragon had shifted so Morgana could see the chain around his leg. The scales around the area were rubbed red and looked incredibly sore. Morgana hissed as her hatred of Uther Pendragon grew stronger. "Lady Morgana, I called you down her because I can't seem to reach Merlin. You are the only other person in the castle who is capable of hearing my voice. What has happened to Merlin?" Morgana swallowed against the lump that rose to her throat. Tears pricked at her eyes.

"Merlin is dead. Uther had him executed," Morgana managed to get out. The sob she had been trying to contain escaped her. Tears began to cascade down her cheeks. It was the first time she'd allowed herself to cry over the boy she had half begun to fall in love with. Through the blurriness of her wet eyes, Morgana could see that Kilgarrah also wept.

"How did you know Merlin?" Morgana wondered aloud.

"He was my kin and he was hope," Kilgarrah stated. Morgana's mind ignored the first and settled on the second.

"Hope?"

"Hope for the end of the darkness for the people of magic. But now that hope is gone. Free me Lady Morgana and let us take our revenge on Uther Pendragon together. Together we shall raze Camelot to the ground!"

The dragon's words shook Morgana out of her moment of grief.

"No Kilgarrah I will not release you. You seem obsessed with thoughts of vengeance but you forget that many innocents will be slaughtered if you raze Camelot to the ground. Besides, Merlin's death has shown Arthur the error of his father's ways. After the execution Arthur made a solemn vow in front of me, my maid and one of the knights to allow magic in the kingdom when he is king. How can he do that if the kingdom is gone?"

"Then Uther must die so Arthur can be king," declared the dragon. "You must take a dagger into his chamber tonight. Make it look like an assassination." Morgana couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"No, I will not murder the king. He's been like a father to me these past few years. He's wrong about magic but I will not bloody my hands because of it. Merlin would tell me not to do it." Morgana's final point seemed to sway the dragon. He looked her over as if he were truly seeing her for the first time.

"Interesting," murmured Kilgarrah eventually. Morgana wasn't sure he'd intended her to hear him but she wasn't going to let that stop her questioning him.

"What's interesting?"

"You are. You used to be shrouded in darkness but that is no longer the case. It seems your destiny has changed young witch."

"What did you just call me?"

"You are a witch, Lady Morgana, and a seer. Have you not noticed that your dreams have a habit of coming true?"

Morgana couldn't breathe. Something within her knew the dragon spoke the truth. Her dreams did have a habit of happening some days later. The thought of being a witch in Uther's Camelot scared her. Morgana turned and ran back up the tunnel. She ran and ran, no idea where she was going. It wasn't until she was pushing open the door that she realised she'd been heading to Arthur's bedchamber.

Arthur sat up and jumped out of bed grabbing his sword as the door hit the wall with a bang. When the prince saw it as only Morgana in distress, he let his sword drop with a clatter and took his sort of sister in his arms.

"It's alright Morgana, I've got you. It was only a nightmare," the prince soothed, stroking Morgana's hair.

"It was no nightmare Arthur. I found something under the castle," Morgana began before explaining about the mysterious voice that had turned out to belong to a dragon. Morgana went on to detail her conversation with the dragon.

"We should go see him together, bring Gwen and Leon," Arthur mused when Morgana had finished speaking.

"What?" Morgana almost screeched. "Why?" she spoke more calmly.

"It sounds like this dragon may know something about the prophecy," Arthur explained.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Morgana wondered aloud.

"Probably because you're not as awesome as me," suggested Arthur puffing out his chest. He held the attitude for a moment before bursting into laughter. Morgana soon followed suit.

"There, that's better," commented Arthur, when he could speak again. Morgana realised that Arthur had intended to make her laugh all along. "Now, do you want me to walk you back to your chambers so you can get some sleep?"

Morgana nodded and the pair set off. They only met one guard and he was quickly pacified when Arthur told him Morgana had had a nightmare and ended up in his chambers.

The following morning, once she was dressed, Morgana returned to Arthur's chambers with Gwen in tow. Sir Leon arrived at almost the same moment the two women did. The knight knocked and when Arthur's voice bid them to enter, opened the door and held it for the ladies. Just before he could close it, Sir Leon spotted George, Arthur's replacement manservant, and another servant laden with food.

Figuring it was breakfast for the group and that neither servant would be able to open the door with their hands so full, Leon waited with the door open till they were in the room.

Arthur decided that talk of dragons and prophecies should wait till after breakfast, so the group chatted about trivial inane things as they eat. When all the food was gone, Arthur pushed back his chair slightly and looked at his friends.

"Last night Morgana found something under the castle," he began, and then looked at Morgana to see if she wanted to explain.

"It was a dragon," Morgana stated. Arthur wanted to burst into laughter again at the look on Gwen and Leon's faces but refrained.

"But the king claims to have killed all the dragons at the start of the purge," protested Leon.

"All but one it seems," responded Morgana. "This one, Kilgarrah, was known as the Great Dragon apparently and Uther has it chained below the castle. It seems Kilgarrah knew Merlin and called out to me to find out what had happened to him. Also he told me I have magic and my nightmares are visions of the future." A worried expression crossed Gwen's face and she threw her arms around Morgana. The two ladies sat for a few moments offering each other comfort through their embrace. Arthur cleared his throat.

"I want us all to go see this dragon. I reckon it might know something about this prophecy." Leon and Gwen stared at Arthur in shock for a moment after he made his statement. Then Leon gave a nod.

"When do you want to go Sire?" questioned Leon, subconsciously slipping into 'knight mode'.

"We'll go tonight," stated Arthur. "We'll eat dinner together, here in my chambers, and then slip down after dark." This was generally agreed to be a good idea and the four separated to go about their days as normal.


End file.
